Changing Seasons
Title: Changing Seasons
Author: tvfxq
Pairing: Yunho/Jaejoong
Rating: PG
Genre: Romance, Slight Angst
Length: One-Shot
Summary: When they were little, Jae Joong stole Yun Ho’s heart and wrote his name on it too. When they grew up Yun Ho found out that Jae Joong still held his heart, and his name never left it either.
- A birthday fic for pikasu ♥
Changing Seasons
~;~
It was spring of 1991 when Yun Ho had first met Jae Joong, his new neighbor; the little boy who had stolen his heart… literally.
“Hey, kid!” Yun Ho shouted at the little boy who had stolen his little stuffed heart. He had made sure to push his chest out and lift his chin up high and make his voice extra loud to intimidate the other kid.
“Hey kid~” the little boy mimicked playfully, staring back at Yun Ho. A huge grin was etched on his face, and even Yun Ho had to admit that he was one cute little boy.
“You’re cute.” Yun Ho stated, but his frown seemed to belie his words. He placed one hand on his hip and used his other to shake his fist angrily in the air, just like how his mother would when she’d be mad, “But that’s my heart you stole.”
“Nuh-uh!” Jae Joong shook his head furiously, hugging the little stuffed heart tightly against his chest, “Finders keepers, losers weepers!” he said, sticking out his tongue.
“But… but… it’s mine! And we’re in my room! And… and it even has my name on it, see?” he pointed dramatically at the little scribbling on the heart’s tag that barely read ‘운호’.
“See?” he said again, “YUN HO.”
Jae Joong frowned for a moment and squinted his eyes. He looked at Yun Ho and berated him for his writing skills, or lack thereof. “That says ‘Oon Ho.’ Do you even know how to write?”
“What?!” Yun Ho screeched over dramatically, grabbing the heart from Jae Joong and reading the tag closely, “No! It says ‘Yun Ho’!”
“No.” Jae Joong insisted, grabbing a pencil from under the bed. With it, he wrote on top of Yun Ho’s messy scribble and changed ‘운호’ to ‘윤호’. “Now that says ‘Yun Ho’.”
“Uwaah~” Yun Ho marveled at Jae Joong in awe, their previous argument about his heart completely forgotten already, “write something else!” he squealed, excited.
“’Kay.” Jae Joong nodded, picking up the pencil, “Where do I write?”
“On my heart!” Yun Ho pointed to his little red heart, “write on my heart!”
“But there’s no more space on the taggy thing.” Jae Joong then pouted, slowly putting the pencil back down, “And I’m pretty sure that if I write on your heart with a pencil, it won’t be seen…”
Yun Ho protruded his lips for a moment and thought to himself, and as if a light bulb had lighted above his head, an idea struck him. “Wait.” He told Jae Joong and ran outside of his room; a few seconds later he came running back, a black permanent marker in hand.
“This is a permanent marker,” he told Jae Joong, emphasizing the word ‘permanent’. “I think this’ll write… but if it does, then whatever you write will stay there… forever.’ Yun Ho whispered the last word, as if it was classified, confidential information.
“Forever…” Jae Joong repeated silently. For a moment he didn’t do anything but stare and think, only when Yun Ho whined about him not doing anything did he pick up the permanent marker and write on Yun Ho’s heart.
재중 (Jae Joong)
“You wrote your name…” Yun Ho gasped, regarding Jae Joong, who just stared back blankly, “Now it will be there forever.”
“I know,” Jae Joong shrugged nonchalantly, “I see it in the movies my umma watches… the boy always tells the girl that he didn’t forget her because she wrote his name on his heart. I wrote mine on your heart so you won’t forget me, okay?”
Yun Ho smiled widely and nodded his head furiously, “Okay!”
Seconds later the door to Yun Ho’s room creaked open; and standing opposite the two little boys were their mothers,
“Jae, it’s time to go now.” Jae Joong’s mother called sweetly, “Say goodbye to Yun Ho.”
Upon hearing his mother’s words, the little boy pouted and clung onto Yun Ho’s arm. Shaking his head in a heated frenzy, he opposed, “I wanna stay, umma!”
“Please let him stay!” Yun Ho joined Jae Joong, embracing the latter. He turned to face his mother and pleaded, “Please?”
Yun Ho’s mother smiled at the two boys, “You can play again tomorrow. Right now, Jae Joong has to go home.”
“Fine.” Both little boys sighed in defeat, yielding to their mothers. Yun Ho let go of Jae Joong, and the latter stood up from Yun Ho’s bed and waved goodbye, walking over to his mother and taking her hand.
“Wait!” Yun Ho yelled before Jae Joong and his mother could leave his room completely. Jae Joong turned his head back to look, “Tomorrow, teach me how to write, okay?”
Jae Joong smiled and nodded his head, “Okay.”
~;~
8 years flew by quickly, and before anyone knew it, Yun Ho and Jae Joong were teenagers already. Barely.
They each had their own friends by then, but still they remained closer than ever, never leaving each other’s side as much as possible.
It was one sunny summer afternoon when Yun Ho and Jae Joong decided to hang out in the tree house Yun Ho’s dad had built for them. It was also that same afternoon when Jae Joong confessed to Yun Ho his feelings…
…
…
…for a girl in his class.
“Yun Ho, you know Hyeon Joo?” He asked suddenly while he and Yun Ho lay on the wooden floor, staring at the ceiling.
“You mean your classmate last year?” Yun Ho arched his eyebrows in slight confusion, rolling over so that he could rest on his arms.
Jae Joong did the same, rolling over onto his stomach so that he could see Yun Ho better. A blush rose to his cheeks and he nodded ever so slightly, “Yeah… I found out where she lives…”
Yun Ho stared at Jae Joong and blinked twice, “So what? You want to ring her doorbell and run away?”
“No.” Jae Joong shook his head, “I like her…” he blushed harder, and somehow, the sight angered Yun Ho. And when he didn’t say anything, Jae Joong sighed and continued speaking, “I’m gonna ask her if she wants to be my girlfriend.”
Strangely, Yun Ho felt jealous upon hearing those words come out of Jae Joong’s mouth. He thought that it was probably because he didn’t have a girlfriend yet and Jae Joong would get one ahead of him. Being thirteen was all about getting into relationships, after all…
~;~
A week later the two teenagers were back in Yun Ho’s tree house, lying on their backs staring at the ceiling. That day, Jae Joong confessed yet another thing to his best friend…
“You know Hyeon Joo?” Jae Joong asked Yun Ho.
“Your girlfriend?” Yun Ho grimaced acridly
“She broke up with me.” Jae Joong confessed, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly, “I didn’t really like her anyway…”
“Really?!” Yun Ho sat up in a jolt, “That’s too bad…” he said, but the huge grin on his face belied his words. Really, it looked as though a hanger could fit in his mouth…
“Well don’t be happy about it!” Jae Joong pouted, sitting up and crossing his arms, “I mean, break ups are emotionally scaring and can create an impact one’s self esteem, you shouldn’t be happy that Hyeon Joo broke up with me.”
Yun Ho stared at Jae Joong and blinked twice, “Where’d you get that from this time?”
“The counseling channel.”
“Right…” Yun Ho nodded, laughing ever so slightly, “So do you have any idea why she broke up with you?”
Jae Joong sighed and hugged his knees tightly against his chest, his chin resting on his knees. “...It’s because I didn’t want to kiss her…” his answer came out as a whisper. Even though he and Yun Ho had been best friends ever since they were five, it was still embarrassing to admit that he had a chance to get a kiss from a girl, but blew it because he didn’t want to… and……
“What a shallow reason.” Yun Ho scoffed angrily, he didn’t know when his hatred for Hyeon Joo began, but somehow, ever since Jae Joong had mentioned her the previous week, his utter dislike for the girl grew and grew. “I never liked that girl. I mean, is it really your fault that she’s so ugly that you can’t stand the thought of kissing her?”
Jae Joong laughed; Yun Ho was always like that. “I didn’t not kiss her because she’s ugly… I mean, she’s pretty!-“
“Don’t call your ex-girlfriend pretty, it’s against the rules.” Yun Ho chided, crossing his arms.
Jae Joong arched an eyebrow, “What rules?”
“My rules.” Yun Ho smiled smugly. Jae Joong just rolled his eyes.
“But it’s true! She’s pretty…”
“Then why didn’t you want to kiss her?”
“Because…” there was a noticeable pause before Jae Joong finally mustered up the courage to tell Yun Ho the reason why he didn’t kiss Hyeon Joo, “…it’s because I don’t know how to kiss. I didn’t want to be bad at it if I kissed her… because then she’d tell her friends that her boyfriend is a horrible kisser, and her friends will tell their friends, then their friends will tell their parents, and their parents will tell their friends and soon, the whole Korea will know that I suck at kissing, and then the Koreans who will travel to other countries will tell their friends, and then the whole world will know!”
Yun Ho stared idly at his best friend, expression blank, but not totally blank. He watched as Jae Joong flailed his arms restlessly around, jumping to conclusions which ultimately could never happen. Without saying a word, he inched closer and closer to the other teenager until the distance between them was almost miniscule.
When Jae Joong noticed the proximity, he stopped yammering and stared at Yun Ho. “What?”
“I don’t know how to kiss either.” Yun Ho admitted, “But maybe if we kiss, then both of us will know how to.”
“I don’t know… wouldn’t it be weird? Because we’re friends… and we’re guys…?” Jae Joong hesitated, scratching the back of his head. In all honesty, he didn’t mind the thought of kissing Yun Ho, but… would it be right?
“Everyone’s doing it.” Yun Ho shrugged, “And it’s for a good cause.”
For a moment Jae Joong faltered, hesitating to agree to kissing Yun Ho. But then he realized that kissing him would be a hundred times better than having the entire world know about his poor kissing skills; and so he nodded.
It was awkward at first when they started leaning into each other, but when their lips touched all awkwardness was lost and the only thing the two teenagers could think of at that moment was the softness of each other’s lips and how amazing the kiss had felt.
~;~
It was autumn of 2002 when the friendship between Yun Ho and Jae Joong began getting rocky.
Jae Joong didn’t know why, but Yun Ho, for some reason began acting cold, and the visits to each other’s houses became lesser and lesser until it finally reached a standstill. There was no more visiting, no more walking to and from school together.
Yun Ho had grown distant and irritable and ignored him practically all the time. There were the occasional heys and his, but at one point, even those were gone.
Jae Joong had never really understood what went wrong in their relationship. It wasn’t like they had a fight or anything, and he didn’t know when they just decided to stop talking to each other, but he was determined to patch things up with his best friend, even though he clearly knew he had done nothing wrong.
~;~
On his way home from badminton practice one day, Jae Joong decided that maybe he’d go talk to Yun Ho already. The faster he’d act, he thought, the faster everything would go back to normal.
Making his way to the doorstep of the house he had used to go to every single day was uncomfortable, considering the visits had just suddenly stopped, and it had been a while since his last visit. Something along the lines of pebbles settled in his stomach (though Jae Joong wouldn’t be lying if he said that maybe it was something along the lines of boulders) as he walked closer and closer to Yun Ho’s doorstep.
There was no going back now, he was already there; before his brain could even begin to protest, his hand came knocking on the door, and a fleeting five seconds later, Yun Ho’s mother answered the door.
“Jae Joong?”
“Hi aunty,” Jae Joong greeted with a warm smile, “is Yun Ho home?”
“Come in, come in,” she crooned, dragging Jae Joong inside her household and enveloping him in an almost bone-crushing embrace, “It’s been a while since I’ve last seen you. Yun Ho’s in his room, I don’t think he’d mind if you entered.”
“But-“
“Go on.” Yun Ho’s mother began pushing him up the staircase before he could even begin to protest. Obviously, she hadn’t been told about their situation and now, he had no choice but to enter Yun Ho’s room.
~;~
After deep breaths Jae Joong found the courage to knock on Yun Ho’s door quietly. As soon as the faint ‘come in’ was heard, he choppily inched his hand closer to the door knob, flinching slightly when he felt the cold metal against his warm skin. As he turned the doorknob and pushed the door ever so slowly open, his mind had already started coming up with a possible scenario and a way to resolve everything-
He’d say hi first, how’s it going? Yun Ho would reply with an indifferent shrug and get on with his business. He’d speak again, apologizing for whatever it was he did wrong and Yun Ho would admit that it’s not his fault; that he shouldn’t apologize. He’d explain why he was cold, and Jae Joong would listen. After that everything would be alright and the past will be left in the past-
But it wasn’t that simple.
Jae Joong didn’t even need to say a word to get Yun Ho’s attention; the latter noticed him the moment he entered. His once bored and uninterested eyes widened in anger, in confusion, but most of all - and Jae Joong didn’t want to admit it - in disgust.
“What are you doing in my room?” he spat, closing the book in his hands and setting the said item aside.
Jae Joong’s heart sank at the mere tone of Yun Ho’s voice; what had he done so bad to deserve such animosity from his best friend? “I wanted to apologize,” his reply came out in a whisper even after the remaining courage he had had been infused in his words.
Yun Ho frowned and let out a scoff. His next words were dripping with acridity; sharpness and bitterness. Acrimoniously he retorted, “What do you have to apologize for? You can’t apologize for being what you are.”
Jae Joong furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. He wasn’t understanding anything. “What are you talking about, Yun Ho? I just wanted to apologize for whatever it was I did you wrong. I want to be friends again.” Jae Joong explained, finding his voice.
“Yes, because I would love to be friends again with an effeminate fag.” Yun Ho jeered acidulously. “I don’t want to be near you at all. Being your friend was a mistake. Piss off, okay? I don’t need you.”
“You affrontive bastard!” Jae Joong nearly yelled, teeth grit, and fists clenched. He wasn’t sure what came over him, but he found himself lunging at Yun Ho, his fist colliding hardly with the latter’s face. “Don’t you ever fucking call me effeminate!” he spat, turning swiftly and angrily on his heel. He grabbed the doorknob and twisted it hard, slamming the door loudly as he left.
Needless to say, the two never talked again after that day.
~;~
It was winter of the following year.
Yun Ho stared idly out his window, watching as the snowflakes from the sky descended to the cold ground.
Cold. Kind of like how he was.
He exhaled a deep and heavy sigh. No matter how hard he’d try to shove the thoughts away, Jae Joong always managed to plague his mind. From the day he had been punched by Jae Joong to now, the latter was the only thought lingering in his mind. -And it tortured him.
“Argh,” he groaned, carding both hands through the dark brown mess on his head; pulling the strands. His mother chose that time to enter his room and caught him in his miserable position. Without a word uttered she sat herself down beside her son and ran her hand up and down his back soothingly.
“Mom…” Yun Ho spoke, turning his head to face his mother, “what does it mean if when you touch someone you feel a spark of electricity… when you think of someone, you feel butterflies in your stomach, when you think of how you did that person wrong, your heart clenches in your chest painfully? What does it mean if you can’t stop thinking of somebody no matter how much you try to stop?”
His mother smiled warmly and cupped either side of Yun Ho’s face, bringing his head closer to her and kissing his forehead. “Is it Jae Joong?”
Yun Ho buried his face in his hands and nodded slightly. “Yes.”
“Well honey, what do you think it is?” She asked, and when he didn’t respond, she continued. “It’s love, Yun Ho. You’re in love.”
“I know…” he sighed, removing his hands from his face, “I just wanted to be sure… I didn’t want to admit it to myself - that I was in love with my best friend… with Jae Joong… a guy - so I ended getting mad at him and started pushing him away in the hope of forgetting about my feelings for him but-“
“Go to him.” She told him, “He’s just next door; go to him. Apologize and make things better, that would be a start.”
Yun Ho regarded his mother with a wan smile. That didn’t sound like such a bad idea.
~;~
“Yun Ho.” Jae Joong’s mother said as she opened the door. She seemed confused as to why he was there; obviously, Jae Joong had told her about the situation. She wasn’t mad, though. She missed the guy, “I haven’t seen you in a long time. Why don’t you come in?”
“Thank you,” he smiled, letting himself inside.
“Jae Joong’s upstairs… studying with that girl.” She grimaced, “You can enter his room though; and if he gets mad, say I let you in, okay?”
“Okay.” Yun Ho nodded happily. Considering she knew about the situation, Yun Ho could only come up with one conclusion as to why she wanted him to see Jae Joong - she was a YunJae fan. And that was good; having no parents to oppose what the two of them might have would be great.
Without any further hesitation, Yun Ho jogged up the stairs and made his way to Jae Joong’s room. He knocked once on the door, but received no answer. He knocked again but still there was no response. Yun Ho decided he’d just enter; they were just studying, it couldn’t have been that bad if he went in.
But apparently, it could have been that bad.
In sight were open books, yes. But they were on the floor and there was absolutely no studying going on. His heart clenched at the sight; Hyeon Joo, the girl Jae Joong couldn’t kiss years ago straddled the latter, sucking the saliva out of Jae Joong’s mouth and vice versa. It was both disturbing and heartbreaking.
And at that moment, Yun Ho couldn’t help but scoff bitterly at the sight, “Psh, studying my ass. What are you guys studying, each other’s mouths?” He said curtly, surprising the two teenagers who lay in bed.
“Yun Ho!” Jae Joong exclaimed in shock, unintentionally pushing Hyeon Joo off of him; resulting in her landing on the floor flat on her ass.
“Ow!” She squeaked. Angrily, she stood up right after and grabbed her bag from the floor, “I’ll see you later, Jae Joong. Looks like you have company.” She said, planting a kiss on his cheek and leaving; but not before sending Yun Ho a dirty look. Yun Ho reciprocated it.
“I can’t believe you’re dating that girl again.” He scoffed sourly once he was sure Hyeon Joo was out of earshot, “I mean, didn’t she-“
“What do you want, Yun Ho?” Jae Joong interrupted, cutting Yun Ho’s sentence short, “Since you came here you must have something to tell me.”
“Oh.” He said, getting nervous all of a sudden and running out of words to say. “Well, you know… I was just… you know…”
“Don’t waste my time, Yun Ho. Don’t think I’m not mad at you for interrupting me and Hyeon Joo.”
“You wouldn’t even be making out with her if it wasn’t for me.” He mumbled, and thankfully, Jae Joong didn’t hear that remark.
“Well?”
“Look, I’m sorry, okay?” came what he deemed a proper apology.
Jae Joong eyed him in disbelief; the sight seemed to be familiar. “What do you have to apologize for? You can’t apologize for being what you are.” He jeered; his words drenched in bitterness.
Yun Ho felt his heart ache. He bit his lips and willed away the salty liquid that threatened to blur his line of vision. “I’m sorry.” he repeated, “For how I acted, for how I treated you… for what I said to you… I’m sorry. I never meant any of it; I was just… mad.”
Jae Joong’s expression seemed to have gone blank; which wasn’t totally something negative, as he didn’t seem angry. “Where’d that come from?”
Yun Ho took a step closer to Jae Joong, who was still seated on his bed, and sighed. “I like… you.” He hesitated, but was glad that he was able to let the words come out. However Jae Joong didn’t seem to have heard it… or maybe it just didn’t affect him. Either way, Yun Ho decided he’d elaborate more on what he had just confessed.
“I was mad at you because I liked you, but I didn’t want to admit to myself that I was… gay.” He began, “but I don’t think it matters right now if I’m gay, because I like you… a lot. I couldn’t stop thinking about you, and as cheesy and cliché as that may sound, it’s true…” Yun Ho trailed off, biting his lip. He wondered if Jae Joong was even paying attention; the latter’s face didn’t seem to show off any emotion or reaction whatsoever. “I’m sorry for everything. I’m just hoping that we could-“
“That’s enough.” Jae Joong interrupted, standing up from where he was seated. He walked over to Yun Ho and stared at him for a good ten seconds before telling the latter, “You should leave now.”
“What?” Yun Ho asked, sounding more desperate than he would have liked.
“What, just because you confessed to me that you like me you expect me to return your feelings?” he told Yun Ho acrimoniously, “I have a girlfriend Yun Ho, what does that tell you?”
Yun Ho felt his chest ache and his stomach twist uncomfortably, but childishly, he insisted on pursuing Jae Joong, “It tells me nothing.” He smiled genuinely; his mirth seemed to take the other aback a little. “You may have rejected me, but all I heard was ‘try again next time, Yun Ho’.”
He turned on his heel and approached the door, clutching onto the brass doorknob; but before he left he turned his head back to look at Jae Joong and with a smile and a wink he said, “I’m not giving up.”
With that, he left.
~;~
Nearly a month had passed since Yun Ho’s confession, and although he and Jae Joong weren’t still friends yet (though, Yun Ho insisted that they were), Yun Ho followed Jae Joong around like a lost puppy… or like a creepy old man stalking a poor, innocent child.
“Hey Jae Joong~” Yun Ho sang jovially as he followed Jae Joong outside the school campus. The latter had evidently hastened the pace of his walking to get away from the irritating boy, but his actions were proven to be fruitless as he and Yun Ho lived right next to each other. Also, Yun Ho was athletic and therefore was just as quick as Jae Joong… or maybe even quicker.
“Hey Jae Joong~” he repeated, persistently trying to gain the aforementioned boy’s attention. And hey, it worked; albeit not in the most amiable manner.
“What?!” Jae Joong growled irritably, stopping in his tracks and swirling around swiftly to look at Yun Ho.
“Are you Jamaican?” he then asked Jae Joong, a stupid grin etched upon his face.
Jae Joong simply blinked and regarded him incredulously, “Yun Ho, we both know that I’m full Korean.”
“Are you sure?” Yun Ho asked, his grin getting even wider, “’Cause Jamaican me crazy.”
There was a moment of evident pregnant silence before Jae Joong sighed disappointedly and disapprovingly shook his head, “…You do know that sounds terrible in Korean.”
“But-“
“Quit it, Yun Ho. Your lame pickup lines are just too damn stupid, and they’re never going to work.” He snapped before turning his back to Yun Ho. But much to Jae Joong’s chagrin, Yun Ho did not give up and jogged up to him, placing his hand over Jae Joong’s shoulder.
“I’d catch a grenade for you.”
Upon hearing that, Jae Joong swatted Yun Ho’s hand away from his shoulder and frowned at him; once again stopping in his tracks, “Yun Ho, you can’t use that line. That song has yet to come out! It’s copyrighted.”
“Oh.” Yun Ho nodded, realizing his mistake, “Well… I love you like a love song?”
Jae Joong shook his head in disappointment and sighed, “The singer of that song is still 11 years old, Yun Ho. You can't say that yet either.”
Yun Ho shook his shoulders playfully and pouted, grabbing hold of both Jae Joong’s hands, “What can I do? I’m in love with you!” he paused, “You wrote your name on my heart…”
Hearing that, Jae Joong stopped for a moment. He bit his lip to suppress the smile tugging at the corner of his lips. He remembered that. “People might hear, stop it.” Jae Joong stated impassively, but the forming smile on his face belied his tone and it was a good thing, he thought, that his back was turned to Yun Ho.
~;~
Spring of 2004 came.
Yun Ho’s behavior most definitely did not improve; the pickup lines just seemed to be getting worse and worse, but Jae Joong had learned to tolerate it. They were hanging out a lot more, too, which was a good thing because although Jae Joong didn’t want to admit it just yet; they were slowly going back to how things used to be.
“Jae Joongie~” Yun Ho crooned, poking the said person’s cheek playfully.
“What is it?” Jae Joong asked, turning his head sideways to face Yun Ho.
“I think we should-“
“Jae Joong, I need to talk to you.” A third voice spoke suddenly, interrupting Yun Ho’s sentence. Both boys turned their heads to see Hyeon Joo standing in front of them, hands resting on her freakishly small hips. “Now, please.”
“Alright.” Jae Joong nodded, standing up from where he was seated. And just as he did so, he felt Yun Ho take hold of his wrist tightly. He turned his head to look.
“I’m coming with you.” Yun Ho said, standing up as well. He took a step forward and leaned into Jae Joong’s ear, “Who knows what the bitch might tell you.”
Jae Joong sighed and gently shook his way out of Yun Ho’s hold. While he didn’t appreciate Yun Ho calling his girlfriend the bitch, he was perfectly okay with the idea of his best fri-of Yun Ho tagging along. “Fine. Do what you want.” He told Yun Ho before following Hyeon Joo, who had already gone ahead.
~;~
“What?” Jae Joong nearly yelled, sounding a bit more desperate than he would have liked.
“I told you,” Hyeon Joo sighed, and rather exasperatedly at that. Her eyes travelled between Yun Ho and Jae Joong for a split moment and her eyebrows furrowed. “I want to break up with you.”
Still unsure as to whether he was imagining things, Jae Joong clenched his fists and desperately turned his head sideways to look at Yun Ho, searching for some sort of answer; but all he got was nothing. He faced forward to look at Hyeon Joo, “Why?”
“I’m just tired, Jae Joong. I want to stop.” She told him, running a delicate hand through her long, flowing hair, “And I’m tired of seeing him,” Hyeon Joo pointed at Yun Ho, “as well.”
“Now hold on just a second,” Yun Ho suddenly said, “if you have a problem with me, then take out your frustrations with me on me. Don’t blame Jae Joong for what-“
“It’s okay,” Jae Joong practically whispered, stopping Yun Ho from saying anything further. His gaze was still fixated on Hyeon Joo, “if she wants to break up, then I won’t stop her.”
Hyeon Joo smiled. “I’m glad you understand.” She waved goodbye and turned on her heel; leaving Jae Joong and Yun Ho lest she make things more awkward for all of them.
As soon as she was gone, Yun Ho held Jae Joong by the arm and turned him around so that they could face each other, before enveloping him in a tight, consoling embrace, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” Jae Joong mumbled, burying his face in Yun Ho’s chest. And for the first time in a long time, Jae Joong found himself hugging Yun Ho back.
“Even if that bitch doesn’t love you…” Yun Ho trailed off, “even if she doesn’t love you, I still do. Remember that I do.”
Jae Joong nodded slowly and buried his face deeper into Yun Ho’s chest, finding solace in the steady beating of his heart. And then the words he thought would never come out of his mouth suddenly just spilled out, and although it was muffled, Yun Ho heard it.
“Make me love you back.”
And that’s exactly what Yun Ho did.
Author: tvfxq
Pairing: Yunho/Jaejoong
Rating: PG
Genre: Romance, Slight Angst
Length: One-Shot
Summary: When they were little, Jae Joong stole Yun Ho’s heart and wrote his name on it too. When they grew up Yun Ho found out that Jae Joong still held his heart, and his name never left it either.
- A birthday fic for pikasu ♥
Changing Seasons
~;~
It was spring of 1991 when Yun Ho had first met Jae Joong, his new neighbor; the little boy who had stolen his heart… literally.
“Hey, kid!” Yun Ho shouted at the little boy who had stolen his little stuffed heart. He had made sure to push his chest out and lift his chin up high and make his voice extra loud to intimidate the other kid.
“Hey kid~” the little boy mimicked playfully, staring back at Yun Ho. A huge grin was etched on his face, and even Yun Ho had to admit that he was one cute little boy.
“You’re cute.” Yun Ho stated, but his frown seemed to belie his words. He placed one hand on his hip and used his other to shake his fist angrily in the air, just like how his mother would when she’d be mad, “But that’s my heart you stole.”
“Nuh-uh!” Jae Joong shook his head furiously, hugging the little stuffed heart tightly against his chest, “Finders keepers, losers weepers!” he said, sticking out his tongue.
“But… but… it’s mine! And we’re in my room! And… and it even has my name on it, see?” he pointed dramatically at the little scribbling on the heart’s tag that barely read ‘운호’.
“See?” he said again, “YUN HO.”
Jae Joong frowned for a moment and squinted his eyes. He looked at Yun Ho and berated him for his writing skills, or lack thereof. “That says ‘Oon Ho.’ Do you even know how to write?”
“What?!” Yun Ho screeched over dramatically, grabbing the heart from Jae Joong and reading the tag closely, “No! It says ‘Yun Ho’!”
“No.” Jae Joong insisted, grabbing a pencil from under the bed. With it, he wrote on top of Yun Ho’s messy scribble and changed ‘운호’ to ‘윤호’. “Now that says ‘Yun Ho’.”
“Uwaah~” Yun Ho marveled at Jae Joong in awe, their previous argument about his heart completely forgotten already, “write something else!” he squealed, excited.
“’Kay.” Jae Joong nodded, picking up the pencil, “Where do I write?”
“On my heart!” Yun Ho pointed to his little red heart, “write on my heart!”
“But there’s no more space on the taggy thing.” Jae Joong then pouted, slowly putting the pencil back down, “And I’m pretty sure that if I write on your heart with a pencil, it won’t be seen…”
Yun Ho protruded his lips for a moment and thought to himself, and as if a light bulb had lighted above his head, an idea struck him. “Wait.” He told Jae Joong and ran outside of his room; a few seconds later he came running back, a black permanent marker in hand.
“This is a permanent marker,” he told Jae Joong, emphasizing the word ‘permanent’. “I think this’ll write… but if it does, then whatever you write will stay there… forever.’ Yun Ho whispered the last word, as if it was classified, confidential information.
“Forever…” Jae Joong repeated silently. For a moment he didn’t do anything but stare and think, only when Yun Ho whined about him not doing anything did he pick up the permanent marker and write on Yun Ho’s heart.
재중 (Jae Joong)
“You wrote your name…” Yun Ho gasped, regarding Jae Joong, who just stared back blankly, “Now it will be there forever.”
“I know,” Jae Joong shrugged nonchalantly, “I see it in the movies my umma watches… the boy always tells the girl that he didn’t forget her because she wrote his name on his heart. I wrote mine on your heart so you won’t forget me, okay?”
Yun Ho smiled widely and nodded his head furiously, “Okay!”
Seconds later the door to Yun Ho’s room creaked open; and standing opposite the two little boys were their mothers,
“Jae, it’s time to go now.” Jae Joong’s mother called sweetly, “Say goodbye to Yun Ho.”
Upon hearing his mother’s words, the little boy pouted and clung onto Yun Ho’s arm. Shaking his head in a heated frenzy, he opposed, “I wanna stay, umma!”
“Please let him stay!” Yun Ho joined Jae Joong, embracing the latter. He turned to face his mother and pleaded, “Please?”
Yun Ho’s mother smiled at the two boys, “You can play again tomorrow. Right now, Jae Joong has to go home.”
“Fine.” Both little boys sighed in defeat, yielding to their mothers. Yun Ho let go of Jae Joong, and the latter stood up from Yun Ho’s bed and waved goodbye, walking over to his mother and taking her hand.
“Wait!” Yun Ho yelled before Jae Joong and his mother could leave his room completely. Jae Joong turned his head back to look, “Tomorrow, teach me how to write, okay?”
Jae Joong smiled and nodded his head, “Okay.”
~;~
8 years flew by quickly, and before anyone knew it, Yun Ho and Jae Joong were teenagers already. Barely.
They each had their own friends by then, but still they remained closer than ever, never leaving each other’s side as much as possible.
It was one sunny summer afternoon when Yun Ho and Jae Joong decided to hang out in the tree house Yun Ho’s dad had built for them. It was also that same afternoon when Jae Joong confessed to Yun Ho his feelings…
…
…
…for a girl in his class.
“Yun Ho, you know Hyeon Joo?” He asked suddenly while he and Yun Ho lay on the wooden floor, staring at the ceiling.
“You mean your classmate last year?” Yun Ho arched his eyebrows in slight confusion, rolling over so that he could rest on his arms.
Jae Joong did the same, rolling over onto his stomach so that he could see Yun Ho better. A blush rose to his cheeks and he nodded ever so slightly, “Yeah… I found out where she lives…”
Yun Ho stared at Jae Joong and blinked twice, “So what? You want to ring her doorbell and run away?”
“No.” Jae Joong shook his head, “I like her…” he blushed harder, and somehow, the sight angered Yun Ho. And when he didn’t say anything, Jae Joong sighed and continued speaking, “I’m gonna ask her if she wants to be my girlfriend.”
Strangely, Yun Ho felt jealous upon hearing those words come out of Jae Joong’s mouth. He thought that it was probably because he didn’t have a girlfriend yet and Jae Joong would get one ahead of him. Being thirteen was all about getting into relationships, after all…
~;~
A week later the two teenagers were back in Yun Ho’s tree house, lying on their backs staring at the ceiling. That day, Jae Joong confessed yet another thing to his best friend…
“You know Hyeon Joo?” Jae Joong asked Yun Ho.
“Your girlfriend?” Yun Ho grimaced acridly
“She broke up with me.” Jae Joong confessed, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly, “I didn’t really like her anyway…”
“Really?!” Yun Ho sat up in a jolt, “That’s too bad…” he said, but the huge grin on his face belied his words. Really, it looked as though a hanger could fit in his mouth…
“Well don’t be happy about it!” Jae Joong pouted, sitting up and crossing his arms, “I mean, break ups are emotionally scaring and can create an impact one’s self esteem, you shouldn’t be happy that Hyeon Joo broke up with me.”
Yun Ho stared at Jae Joong and blinked twice, “Where’d you get that from this time?”
“The counseling channel.”
“Right…” Yun Ho nodded, laughing ever so slightly, “So do you have any idea why she broke up with you?”
Jae Joong sighed and hugged his knees tightly against his chest, his chin resting on his knees. “...It’s because I didn’t want to kiss her…” his answer came out as a whisper. Even though he and Yun Ho had been best friends ever since they were five, it was still embarrassing to admit that he had a chance to get a kiss from a girl, but blew it because he didn’t want to… and……
“What a shallow reason.” Yun Ho scoffed angrily, he didn’t know when his hatred for Hyeon Joo began, but somehow, ever since Jae Joong had mentioned her the previous week, his utter dislike for the girl grew and grew. “I never liked that girl. I mean, is it really your fault that she’s so ugly that you can’t stand the thought of kissing her?”
Jae Joong laughed; Yun Ho was always like that. “I didn’t not kiss her because she’s ugly… I mean, she’s pretty!-“
“Don’t call your ex-girlfriend pretty, it’s against the rules.” Yun Ho chided, crossing his arms.
Jae Joong arched an eyebrow, “What rules?”
“My rules.” Yun Ho smiled smugly. Jae Joong just rolled his eyes.
“But it’s true! She’s pretty…”
“Then why didn’t you want to kiss her?”
“Because…” there was a noticeable pause before Jae Joong finally mustered up the courage to tell Yun Ho the reason why he didn’t kiss Hyeon Joo, “…it’s because I don’t know how to kiss. I didn’t want to be bad at it if I kissed her… because then she’d tell her friends that her boyfriend is a horrible kisser, and her friends will tell their friends, then their friends will tell their parents, and their parents will tell their friends and soon, the whole Korea will know that I suck at kissing, and then the Koreans who will travel to other countries will tell their friends, and then the whole world will know!”
Yun Ho stared idly at his best friend, expression blank, but not totally blank. He watched as Jae Joong flailed his arms restlessly around, jumping to conclusions which ultimately could never happen. Without saying a word, he inched closer and closer to the other teenager until the distance between them was almost miniscule.
When Jae Joong noticed the proximity, he stopped yammering and stared at Yun Ho. “What?”
“I don’t know how to kiss either.” Yun Ho admitted, “But maybe if we kiss, then both of us will know how to.”
“I don’t know… wouldn’t it be weird? Because we’re friends… and we’re guys…?” Jae Joong hesitated, scratching the back of his head. In all honesty, he didn’t mind the thought of kissing Yun Ho, but… would it be right?
“Everyone’s doing it.” Yun Ho shrugged, “And it’s for a good cause.”
For a moment Jae Joong faltered, hesitating to agree to kissing Yun Ho. But then he realized that kissing him would be a hundred times better than having the entire world know about his poor kissing skills; and so he nodded.
It was awkward at first when they started leaning into each other, but when their lips touched all awkwardness was lost and the only thing the two teenagers could think of at that moment was the softness of each other’s lips and how amazing the kiss had felt.
~;~
It was autumn of 2002 when the friendship between Yun Ho and Jae Joong began getting rocky.
Jae Joong didn’t know why, but Yun Ho, for some reason began acting cold, and the visits to each other’s houses became lesser and lesser until it finally reached a standstill. There was no more visiting, no more walking to and from school together.
Yun Ho had grown distant and irritable and ignored him practically all the time. There were the occasional heys and his, but at one point, even those were gone.
Jae Joong had never really understood what went wrong in their relationship. It wasn’t like they had a fight or anything, and he didn’t know when they just decided to stop talking to each other, but he was determined to patch things up with his best friend, even though he clearly knew he had done nothing wrong.
~;~
On his way home from badminton practice one day, Jae Joong decided that maybe he’d go talk to Yun Ho already. The faster he’d act, he thought, the faster everything would go back to normal.
Making his way to the doorstep of the house he had used to go to every single day was uncomfortable, considering the visits had just suddenly stopped, and it had been a while since his last visit. Something along the lines of pebbles settled in his stomach (though Jae Joong wouldn’t be lying if he said that maybe it was something along the lines of boulders) as he walked closer and closer to Yun Ho’s doorstep.
There was no going back now, he was already there; before his brain could even begin to protest, his hand came knocking on the door, and a fleeting five seconds later, Yun Ho’s mother answered the door.
“Jae Joong?”
“Hi aunty,” Jae Joong greeted with a warm smile, “is Yun Ho home?”
“Come in, come in,” she crooned, dragging Jae Joong inside her household and enveloping him in an almost bone-crushing embrace, “It’s been a while since I’ve last seen you. Yun Ho’s in his room, I don’t think he’d mind if you entered.”
“But-“
“Go on.” Yun Ho’s mother began pushing him up the staircase before he could even begin to protest. Obviously, she hadn’t been told about their situation and now, he had no choice but to enter Yun Ho’s room.
~;~
After deep breaths Jae Joong found the courage to knock on Yun Ho’s door quietly. As soon as the faint ‘come in’ was heard, he choppily inched his hand closer to the door knob, flinching slightly when he felt the cold metal against his warm skin. As he turned the doorknob and pushed the door ever so slowly open, his mind had already started coming up with a possible scenario and a way to resolve everything-
He’d say hi first, how’s it going? Yun Ho would reply with an indifferent shrug and get on with his business. He’d speak again, apologizing for whatever it was he did wrong and Yun Ho would admit that it’s not his fault; that he shouldn’t apologize. He’d explain why he was cold, and Jae Joong would listen. After that everything would be alright and the past will be left in the past-
But it wasn’t that simple.
Jae Joong didn’t even need to say a word to get Yun Ho’s attention; the latter noticed him the moment he entered. His once bored and uninterested eyes widened in anger, in confusion, but most of all - and Jae Joong didn’t want to admit it - in disgust.
“What are you doing in my room?” he spat, closing the book in his hands and setting the said item aside.
Jae Joong’s heart sank at the mere tone of Yun Ho’s voice; what had he done so bad to deserve such animosity from his best friend? “I wanted to apologize,” his reply came out in a whisper even after the remaining courage he had had been infused in his words.
Yun Ho frowned and let out a scoff. His next words were dripping with acridity; sharpness and bitterness. Acrimoniously he retorted, “What do you have to apologize for? You can’t apologize for being what you are.”
Jae Joong furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. He wasn’t understanding anything. “What are you talking about, Yun Ho? I just wanted to apologize for whatever it was I did you wrong. I want to be friends again.” Jae Joong explained, finding his voice.
“Yes, because I would love to be friends again with an effeminate fag.” Yun Ho jeered acidulously. “I don’t want to be near you at all. Being your friend was a mistake. Piss off, okay? I don’t need you.”
“You affrontive bastard!” Jae Joong nearly yelled, teeth grit, and fists clenched. He wasn’t sure what came over him, but he found himself lunging at Yun Ho, his fist colliding hardly with the latter’s face. “Don’t you ever fucking call me effeminate!” he spat, turning swiftly and angrily on his heel. He grabbed the doorknob and twisted it hard, slamming the door loudly as he left.
Needless to say, the two never talked again after that day.
~;~
It was winter of the following year.
Yun Ho stared idly out his window, watching as the snowflakes from the sky descended to the cold ground.
Cold. Kind of like how he was.
He exhaled a deep and heavy sigh. No matter how hard he’d try to shove the thoughts away, Jae Joong always managed to plague his mind. From the day he had been punched by Jae Joong to now, the latter was the only thought lingering in his mind. -And it tortured him.
“Argh,” he groaned, carding both hands through the dark brown mess on his head; pulling the strands. His mother chose that time to enter his room and caught him in his miserable position. Without a word uttered she sat herself down beside her son and ran her hand up and down his back soothingly.
“Mom…” Yun Ho spoke, turning his head to face his mother, “what does it mean if when you touch someone you feel a spark of electricity… when you think of someone, you feel butterflies in your stomach, when you think of how you did that person wrong, your heart clenches in your chest painfully? What does it mean if you can’t stop thinking of somebody no matter how much you try to stop?”
His mother smiled warmly and cupped either side of Yun Ho’s face, bringing his head closer to her and kissing his forehead. “Is it Jae Joong?”
Yun Ho buried his face in his hands and nodded slightly. “Yes.”
“Well honey, what do you think it is?” She asked, and when he didn’t respond, she continued. “It’s love, Yun Ho. You’re in love.”
“I know…” he sighed, removing his hands from his face, “I just wanted to be sure… I didn’t want to admit it to myself - that I was in love with my best friend… with Jae Joong… a guy - so I ended getting mad at him and started pushing him away in the hope of forgetting about my feelings for him but-“
“Go to him.” She told him, “He’s just next door; go to him. Apologize and make things better, that would be a start.”
Yun Ho regarded his mother with a wan smile. That didn’t sound like such a bad idea.
~;~
“Yun Ho.” Jae Joong’s mother said as she opened the door. She seemed confused as to why he was there; obviously, Jae Joong had told her about the situation. She wasn’t mad, though. She missed the guy, “I haven’t seen you in a long time. Why don’t you come in?”
“Thank you,” he smiled, letting himself inside.
“Jae Joong’s upstairs… studying with that girl.” She grimaced, “You can enter his room though; and if he gets mad, say I let you in, okay?”
“Okay.” Yun Ho nodded happily. Considering she knew about the situation, Yun Ho could only come up with one conclusion as to why she wanted him to see Jae Joong - she was a YunJae fan. And that was good; having no parents to oppose what the two of them might have would be great.
Without any further hesitation, Yun Ho jogged up the stairs and made his way to Jae Joong’s room. He knocked once on the door, but received no answer. He knocked again but still there was no response. Yun Ho decided he’d just enter; they were just studying, it couldn’t have been that bad if he went in.
But apparently, it could have been that bad.
In sight were open books, yes. But they were on the floor and there was absolutely no studying going on. His heart clenched at the sight; Hyeon Joo, the girl Jae Joong couldn’t kiss years ago straddled the latter, sucking the saliva out of Jae Joong’s mouth and vice versa. It was both disturbing and heartbreaking.
And at that moment, Yun Ho couldn’t help but scoff bitterly at the sight, “Psh, studying my ass. What are you guys studying, each other’s mouths?” He said curtly, surprising the two teenagers who lay in bed.
“Yun Ho!” Jae Joong exclaimed in shock, unintentionally pushing Hyeon Joo off of him; resulting in her landing on the floor flat on her ass.
“Ow!” She squeaked. Angrily, she stood up right after and grabbed her bag from the floor, “I’ll see you later, Jae Joong. Looks like you have company.” She said, planting a kiss on his cheek and leaving; but not before sending Yun Ho a dirty look. Yun Ho reciprocated it.
“I can’t believe you’re dating that girl again.” He scoffed sourly once he was sure Hyeon Joo was out of earshot, “I mean, didn’t she-“
“What do you want, Yun Ho?” Jae Joong interrupted, cutting Yun Ho’s sentence short, “Since you came here you must have something to tell me.”
“Oh.” He said, getting nervous all of a sudden and running out of words to say. “Well, you know… I was just… you know…”
“Don’t waste my time, Yun Ho. Don’t think I’m not mad at you for interrupting me and Hyeon Joo.”
“You wouldn’t even be making out with her if it wasn’t for me.” He mumbled, and thankfully, Jae Joong didn’t hear that remark.
“Well?”
“Look, I’m sorry, okay?” came what he deemed a proper apology.
Jae Joong eyed him in disbelief; the sight seemed to be familiar. “What do you have to apologize for? You can’t apologize for being what you are.” He jeered; his words drenched in bitterness.
Yun Ho felt his heart ache. He bit his lips and willed away the salty liquid that threatened to blur his line of vision. “I’m sorry.” he repeated, “For how I acted, for how I treated you… for what I said to you… I’m sorry. I never meant any of it; I was just… mad.”
Jae Joong’s expression seemed to have gone blank; which wasn’t totally something negative, as he didn’t seem angry. “Where’d that come from?”
Yun Ho took a step closer to Jae Joong, who was still seated on his bed, and sighed. “I like… you.” He hesitated, but was glad that he was able to let the words come out. However Jae Joong didn’t seem to have heard it… or maybe it just didn’t affect him. Either way, Yun Ho decided he’d elaborate more on what he had just confessed.
“I was mad at you because I liked you, but I didn’t want to admit to myself that I was… gay.” He began, “but I don’t think it matters right now if I’m gay, because I like you… a lot. I couldn’t stop thinking about you, and as cheesy and cliché as that may sound, it’s true…” Yun Ho trailed off, biting his lip. He wondered if Jae Joong was even paying attention; the latter’s face didn’t seem to show off any emotion or reaction whatsoever. “I’m sorry for everything. I’m just hoping that we could-“
“That’s enough.” Jae Joong interrupted, standing up from where he was seated. He walked over to Yun Ho and stared at him for a good ten seconds before telling the latter, “You should leave now.”
“What?” Yun Ho asked, sounding more desperate than he would have liked.
“What, just because you confessed to me that you like me you expect me to return your feelings?” he told Yun Ho acrimoniously, “I have a girlfriend Yun Ho, what does that tell you?”
Yun Ho felt his chest ache and his stomach twist uncomfortably, but childishly, he insisted on pursuing Jae Joong, “It tells me nothing.” He smiled genuinely; his mirth seemed to take the other aback a little. “You may have rejected me, but all I heard was ‘try again next time, Yun Ho’.”
He turned on his heel and approached the door, clutching onto the brass doorknob; but before he left he turned his head back to look at Jae Joong and with a smile and a wink he said, “I’m not giving up.”
With that, he left.
~;~
Nearly a month had passed since Yun Ho’s confession, and although he and Jae Joong weren’t still friends yet (though, Yun Ho insisted that they were), Yun Ho followed Jae Joong around like a lost puppy… or like a creepy old man stalking a poor, innocent child.
“Hey Jae Joong~” Yun Ho sang jovially as he followed Jae Joong outside the school campus. The latter had evidently hastened the pace of his walking to get away from the irritating boy, but his actions were proven to be fruitless as he and Yun Ho lived right next to each other. Also, Yun Ho was athletic and therefore was just as quick as Jae Joong… or maybe even quicker.
“Hey Jae Joong~” he repeated, persistently trying to gain the aforementioned boy’s attention. And hey, it worked; albeit not in the most amiable manner.
“What?!” Jae Joong growled irritably, stopping in his tracks and swirling around swiftly to look at Yun Ho.
“Are you Jamaican?” he then asked Jae Joong, a stupid grin etched upon his face.
Jae Joong simply blinked and regarded him incredulously, “Yun Ho, we both know that I’m full Korean.”
“Are you sure?” Yun Ho asked, his grin getting even wider, “’Cause Jamaican me crazy.”
There was a moment of evident pregnant silence before Jae Joong sighed disappointedly and disapprovingly shook his head, “…You do know that sounds terrible in Korean.”
“But-“
“Quit it, Yun Ho. Your lame pickup lines are just too damn stupid, and they’re never going to work.” He snapped before turning his back to Yun Ho. But much to Jae Joong’s chagrin, Yun Ho did not give up and jogged up to him, placing his hand over Jae Joong’s shoulder.
“I’d catch a grenade for you.”
Upon hearing that, Jae Joong swatted Yun Ho’s hand away from his shoulder and frowned at him; once again stopping in his tracks, “Yun Ho, you can’t use that line. That song has yet to come out! It’s copyrighted.”
“Oh.” Yun Ho nodded, realizing his mistake, “Well… I love you like a love song?”
Jae Joong shook his head in disappointment and sighed, “The singer of that song is still 11 years old, Yun Ho. You can't say that yet either.”
Yun Ho shook his shoulders playfully and pouted, grabbing hold of both Jae Joong’s hands, “What can I do? I’m in love with you!” he paused, “You wrote your name on my heart…”
Hearing that, Jae Joong stopped for a moment. He bit his lip to suppress the smile tugging at the corner of his lips. He remembered that. “People might hear, stop it.” Jae Joong stated impassively, but the forming smile on his face belied his tone and it was a good thing, he thought, that his back was turned to Yun Ho.
~;~
Spring of 2004 came.
Yun Ho’s behavior most definitely did not improve; the pickup lines just seemed to be getting worse and worse, but Jae Joong had learned to tolerate it. They were hanging out a lot more, too, which was a good thing because although Jae Joong didn’t want to admit it just yet; they were slowly going back to how things used to be.
“Jae Joongie~” Yun Ho crooned, poking the said person’s cheek playfully.
“What is it?” Jae Joong asked, turning his head sideways to face Yun Ho.
“I think we should-“
“Jae Joong, I need to talk to you.” A third voice spoke suddenly, interrupting Yun Ho’s sentence. Both boys turned their heads to see Hyeon Joo standing in front of them, hands resting on her freakishly small hips. “Now, please.”
“Alright.” Jae Joong nodded, standing up from where he was seated. And just as he did so, he felt Yun Ho take hold of his wrist tightly. He turned his head to look.
“I’m coming with you.” Yun Ho said, standing up as well. He took a step forward and leaned into Jae Joong’s ear, “Who knows what the bitch might tell you.”
Jae Joong sighed and gently shook his way out of Yun Ho’s hold. While he didn’t appreciate Yun Ho calling his girlfriend the bitch, he was perfectly okay with the idea of his best fri-of Yun Ho tagging along. “Fine. Do what you want.” He told Yun Ho before following Hyeon Joo, who had already gone ahead.
~;~
“What?” Jae Joong nearly yelled, sounding a bit more desperate than he would have liked.
“I told you,” Hyeon Joo sighed, and rather exasperatedly at that. Her eyes travelled between Yun Ho and Jae Joong for a split moment and her eyebrows furrowed. “I want to break up with you.”
Still unsure as to whether he was imagining things, Jae Joong clenched his fists and desperately turned his head sideways to look at Yun Ho, searching for some sort of answer; but all he got was nothing. He faced forward to look at Hyeon Joo, “Why?”
“I’m just tired, Jae Joong. I want to stop.” She told him, running a delicate hand through her long, flowing hair, “And I’m tired of seeing him,” Hyeon Joo pointed at Yun Ho, “as well.”
“Now hold on just a second,” Yun Ho suddenly said, “if you have a problem with me, then take out your frustrations with me on me. Don’t blame Jae Joong for what-“
“It’s okay,” Jae Joong practically whispered, stopping Yun Ho from saying anything further. His gaze was still fixated on Hyeon Joo, “if she wants to break up, then I won’t stop her.”
Hyeon Joo smiled. “I’m glad you understand.” She waved goodbye and turned on her heel; leaving Jae Joong and Yun Ho lest she make things more awkward for all of them.
As soon as she was gone, Yun Ho held Jae Joong by the arm and turned him around so that they could face each other, before enveloping him in a tight, consoling embrace, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” Jae Joong mumbled, burying his face in Yun Ho’s chest. And for the first time in a long time, Jae Joong found himself hugging Yun Ho back.
“Even if that bitch doesn’t love you…” Yun Ho trailed off, “even if she doesn’t love you, I still do. Remember that I do.”
Jae Joong nodded slowly and buried his face deeper into Yun Ho’s chest, finding solace in the steady beating of his heart. And then the words he thought would never come out of his mouth suddenly just spilled out, and although it was muffled, Yun Ho heard it.
“Make me love you back.”
And that’s exactly what Yun Ho did.